MySpace Bans 29,000 Sex Offenders

Originally Posted by BBC News

The social networking website MySpace has reported a four-fold increase in the number of convicted sex offenders using its service.

The company found more than 29,000 convicted sex offenders in the United States had profiles on MySpace - up from a figure of 7,000 given in May.

MySpace said it was pleased it had identified and removed the profiles of the offenders.

Critics of MySpace call for new laws to make such sites safer for children.

MySpace is a personal website tool allowing people to post blogs, music, and videos.
More than 80 million people have registered a MySpace page. News Corp bought the site for $580m last year.

Tis good to see they take the possibility of sex offences via the service seriously and work pro-actively to prevent it.

BBC News Report

well done myspace !!!

nice one

while they have banned convicted offenders, the site being there in the first place with the allowance for minors to sign up still leaves the door open for unconvicted potential sex offenders

So your saying they should close down the whole site?

Hmmmm lets close down all social networking sites then, including this very site.

Imho, if parents had more control over kids, there wouldnt be any risk whether sex offenders were using such sites or not.

Dont blame the internet or the sites, blame the parents.

yer people should have more control over what there kids go on and not just leave them sitting on computer for hours on end

Well it appears to me, that sites like MySpace, in filtering out 29,000 accounts, which involves a hell of a lot of investigative work, are doing a hell of a lot more work to try and combat this then parents, who generally just give their kids a PC with the internet and then leave them to it!

that it mate all they want to do is find some way of shutting kids up and keep them out of there way

Originally Posted by MattyC

So your saying they should close down the whole site?

Hmmmm lets close down all social networking sites then, including this very site.

Imho, if parents had more control over kids, there wouldnt be any risk whether sex offenders were using such sites or not.

Dont blame the internet or the sites, blame the parents.

u read my comment totally wrong. wot i was saying is the sites should be age restricted to at least 16, i've seen profiles on myspace for like 13 yr olds, tis fooked up

but yea, parents should b doin a lot more too.. they need to wise up... dont think many of them realise how easy it is for their kids to become prey to some sick freak

It dont matter what the age limit is though, kids arnt stupid, by the age of 11 if they want an account, they will understand how to falsify information to get one.

Its just like MSN, you used to have to be 16 to have a profile, yet when I was younger, I knew loadsa people who had profiles who wernt old enough - including myself.

MySpace also has further protection for under 16's (or it may apply to under 18's) where their profile is private unless you ask them to add you as a friend. Again, I know pelnty of people who are under 16 with accounts that arnt private, simply because they give false information about their age.